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Showing posts with label iraq. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iraq. Show all posts

Friday, May 25, 2007

Friday Afternoon Briefs: Vanguard to Have Farmer's Market Booth and Much More

Vanguard to Host Farmer's Market Booth

The People's Vanguard of Davis will host a booth at the Davis Farmer's Market tomorrow. We will have literature and discussions about local issues.

In addition, a key attraction will be two petitions calling for the end of the Iraq War. One of which will demand a cut-off of funding immediately except that which is necessary bring home the troops and support the veterans after the get back home. The other will have a time-table for a withdrawal and no funding without a deadline by which troops must be home. Both of these petitions are supported by veterans' groups. People will be free to sign the one that they are most comfortable with signing or have a discussion about the issue.

Here's the language:
"We the undersigned do not support funding the Iraq war. We ask that Congress cut off all funding to the war for any purpose other than for bringing the troops home, veteran's needs, and rebuilding Iraq."

"We the undersigned do not support funding the Iraq war without setting definitive deadlines for troop withdrawal and supporting veteran's needs and rebuilding Iraq."
Student Activists Organize Around Malcolm X and Sodexho

Last night at the Silo on the UC Davis campus, more than 50 students and activists met for a panel discussion on a list of topics that ranged from Malcolm X to Civil Rights to modern activism. The group organized by UC Davis student Devon Lee, brought people of various groups and activism together in hopes of networking and branching out to create a new progressive movement in Davis. Devon Lee was one of the chief organizers last year of student march from the MU to the Davis Police Station in protest of racial profiling practices.

One of the panelists a long time civil rights leader helped to organize people against racial profiling in the West Sacramento area and spoke of the success in fighting the gang injunction. Moreover he cautioned people that West Sacramento Police continue to target minorities and that that struggle is still ongoing.

One of the panelists included Javier Ortiz, a Chicano Studies lecturer, remarked that this was the first time he had seen a large black contingent of students on the UC Davis campus.

Activism was a large topic of conversation, with students expressing difficulty in organizing given a heavy class load and many students needing to work multiple jobs in order to pay for the ever rising cost of tuition.



There were several representatives from Students Organizing For Change, the group leading the protests to make food service workers university employees instead of Sodexho employees. They talked about ways in which people can be active and organize in a short period of time using modern resources such as Facebook and the Internet.

My wife, Cecilia Escamilla Greenwald spoke both as a former member of the HRC and current Union organizer with SEIU. She talked about the need to take direct action and spoke of her experience of helping the Janitor's in Houston to organize and obtain union status and get a new contract that substantially raised the level of pay and benefits for over 5,200 workers.

Shh... Don't Tell Officer Ly

In the Halema Buzayan case last year, Officer Ly determined that Ms. Buzayan was lying about her claim that she was not driving that evening, based on a head scarf. Her mother was wearing a head scarf that evening and she was not. Officer Ly reasoned in a recording, that he felt that the witnesses would have mentioned a head scarf. Attorneys for the family have seized upon this as evidence of Officer Ly prosecuting on the basis of a misunderstanding about their religious attire and a contention that Ms. Buzayan since she was not wearing the head scarf that evening, never wore a head scarf. In fact, she does and she did last night.

Here is a picture with my wife Cecilia and Halema's brother, Mahamed, showing Halema in a headscarf. All three of these individuals have been involved in controversial events in the last year.

---Doug Paul Davis reporting

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Sunday Evening Briefs

Well Wishes to Kingsley Melton

I wanted to send out well wishes to Kingsley Melton who was seriously burned down in San Diego on his way to a winter vacation. Kingsley is the son of public defender Barry Melton and active in politics and the community himself.

Davis Enterprise Poll on Iraq

I was looking the latest "poll" in the Davis Enterprise. I haven't taken their polls very seriously since I saw the manipulation that occurred with the one last July pertaining to the Human Relations Commission. Assistant Publisher and Editor Debbie Davis was informed of this manipulation, she acknowledged problems with the polls, and yet the poll results were still published in the paper with no explanation.

Nevertheless this one was somewhat interesting.

This question is:
"Do you think President Bush's plan to increase U.S. forces in Iraq will help bring a quicker resolution to the conflict?"
I was thinking about this, I ended up voting "no." But in honesty I think the answer is yes, but in the opposite direction that the President hopes. I think it will speed up the ending unfortunately because it will place more of our brave troops in harms way. The Iraqi security forces added 70,000 or so troops to Baghdad in late June. July became the largest month casualty-wise in Iraq. Why? Because they put some many people in harms way. And I fear this is what is going to happen now. So I'd like to vote yes, because I think that would be the straw that ends this war. But I couldn't in good conscience, because most people would interpret it the opposite way.

Regardless, it is nice to see the Democrats at least verbally applying some resistance to this new plan.

KDVS Broadcast

I wanted to thank Richard Estes and Ron Glick for having me on their show on KDVS "Speaking in Tongues." We had a great conversation mainly on the Junior High School harassment story, the Buzayan story, and the Khalid Berny story.

If you would like to hear that broadcast click on:

MP3 Stream (56kbps, dial up)
MP3 Stream (128kbps, dial up)

Make sure you select the top tab which should be for the January 5, 2007 broadcast.

Senior Citizens Commission Meeting

While I am not completely certain what this item is about, I was directed to the Senior Citizens Commission agenda.

Item D under new business reads: "Review and discuss information related to the Internet blog" Vanguard"

What they will be discussing, we shall find out.

---Doug Paul Davis reporting

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Score one for the blogosphere... on the bad side

It is a lesson that as a blogger, every blogger must inherently worry about. What you report affects people's lives, even as you are typing from the sanctity of your personal home and looking up information on the internet. This is the lesson we bloggers must take to heart.

On December 20, 2006 a conservative blogger Michelle Malkin reported that a source used by the Associated Press in Iraq, a Jamil Hussein did not exist.

This was used to show that the AP was making up false anti-war stories.

Well yesterday the AP reports:
Iraq's Interior Ministry acknowledged today "that an Iraqi police officer whose existence had been denied by the Iraqis and the U.S. military is in fact an active member of the force, and said he now faces arrest for speaking to the media..."
As these things go this ranks up there as an absolute disaster. You have an irresponsible blogger, making irresponsible claims that end up getting someone fired.

The upside about blogging is that it keeps the mainstream media on their toes and ensures better reporting. The downside is the you have untrained amateurs or in this case a political pundit with power and influence and a political shtick carelessly or maliciously harms another person.

As a blogger I am a strong supporter of the medium. I think that locally and nationally we need voices who can call it as it is. I have in a very short time, I believe made an impact in the community. I note that County Supervisor Helen Thomson read from this blog. That the Woodland Daily Democrat used a blog entry on their editorial page. That the Senior Citizen's Commission will have an agenda item this Thursday related to this blog. So there is a tremendous amount of interest and impact already for this new blog. This is a note of caution, with power and influence comes responsibility. But this is a note of caution to all of us to remember that what we say does impact lives.

---Doug Paul Davis reporting

Friday, December 22, 2006

Friday Briefs

Programming note

In the last days of this year, we will have our year in review where we present the top 10 Davis Political Stories of 2006.

Khalid Berny

The first week of January, the People's Vanguard of Davis will have a full exclusive interview with Khalid Berny. Berny is a Clarkburg resident accused of allowing his goats to roam at-large--charged with 170 misdemeanor accounts.

One of the most interesting aspects of the Berny case is once again, we have the Yolo County District Attorney's office suggesting that if Mr. Berny dropped his civil lawsuit against the Sheriff's Department, the District Attorney's Office would drop criminal charges against Mr. Berny. This was similar to Deputy District Attorney Patricia Fong who justified the prosecution of Halema Buzayan because the family was planning a civil suit against the Davis Police Department.

We'll have the full story in January, but people need to start asking tough questions about the operation of the Yolo County District Attorney's Office.


Letters...
Editor,

Recently the National Public Radio stations broadcast a program about volunteers who provide respite services for the caregivers of homebound frail elderly. For listeners who live in Yolo County, this might have sounded familiar. Citizens Who Care Inc. of Yolo County (CWC) has been providing this service to hundreds families since we began as a local non-profit volunteer agency in 1988.

In fact, volunteers of CWC were assisting elders as early as 1975 under the umbrella of the county Mental Health Association. Especially during the holiday season, the stress on caregivers is great. A little time off can lift the burden a little, offering a chance to do errands, visit others, or simply rest. In an angry and problem-riddled world, here is something everyone can do to help others and strengthen families. It makes the whole community a stronger and better place. Call to volunteer, to make a donation, or buy a ticket to our Winter Concert fundraiser on February 17 & 18. Our phone number is 758-3704.

You will feel good knowing you have made the holidays brighter for our elders and their families.

Ken Wagstaff
Executive Director
Citizens Who Care

All letters or guest commentary should be sent to: dougpauldavis@davisvanguard.com


Stunning Poll on Iraq:
Withdrawn on a fixed timetable: 52%
Kept in Iraq to secure the country: 26%
More troops should be sent: 12%

---

Source: Times/Bloomberg poll
The significance of this poll is that only 12% of Americans polled support increasing troop strength in Iraq. I don't know if I've ever seen a poll where public opinion is running 78-12 against a policy that the President seems to be proposing. The president may be leading but no one is following him.

---Doug Paul Davis reporting